Alternate Side Parking Destroys the Planet

Although New Yorkers scored a small victory now that city-sanctioned vandalism on vehicles which aren’t moved during street cleaning has been outlawed, a new research paper from NYU suggests that even slight changes to the current alternate side parking laws could greatly benefit the environment and cut down on the amount of greenhouse gases in the city.

The current regulations encourage car use and the bad behaviors that go with it, like idling cars, circling the block, and worst of all, driving to places they otherwise wouldn’t have, to avoid the hassle altogether. According to the study, the amount of carbon emissions could be greatly reduced even if alternate side parking rules were scaled back by one day.

Another proposal that would help is Intro. 375, a bill that would allow drivers to park in a spot after the street sweeper has cleaned it and not have to obnoxiously wait in their cars for over an hour until the official cleaning period ends.